Holidays wit

Delaware’s a small state, and if you’ve lived here for a while, our holiday events can get a tad repetitive.

How many times can you sit on Santa’s lap at the Christiana Mall, go caroling in The Circle in Georgetown or swing by the dazzlingly decorated Faucher home in Red Lion?

But if you live upstate, you’re about 30 minutes from Philadelphia, where you can give this holiday season a big-city twist.

Check out, for instance, the long-running Running of the Santas Dec. 18 near the city’s Northern Liberties neighborhood. (Tickets are $28.)

The event, which has pulled up to 6,000 revelers in recent years, officially starts at 10 a.m. with a five-hour bar crawl at 13 area pubs before the groups come together at Finnigan’s Wake on Spring Garden Street for three more hours of revelry before the main event. (Note: Out & About’s annual Santa Crawl, which will be held Saturday night at 21 bars across Wilmington, draws about 5,500 each year.)

That’s when thousands of people dressed as Santa run down Spring Garden Street and turn onto Sixth Street before ending at the Electric Factory for a blow-out party with bands performing both inside and out all night long.

The blur of thousands of people dressed in red, white and black streaming down closed city streets is hilarious and oddly festive, dating back to 1998.

“It’s the one day of the year where we have the streets to ourselves,” says Matthew McDermott, the 36-year-old co-organizer of Running of the Santas, who also hosts the annual Christmas-in-July Rudolph’s Revenge event at The Starboard, in Dewey Beach. “People have showed up with sleds. There have even been horse-drawn carriages.”

If being surrounded by a bunch of buzzed Santas isn’t enough of a cultural experience for you, consider hitting the Avenue of the Arts, which has plenty of holiday-themed shows on tap, including the Pennsylvania Ballet’s performance of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” which runs through Dec. 31 at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust streets. (Tickets range from $30-$139.)

The Philadelphia tradition, in its 42nd year, brings Tchaikovsky’s score alive with the help of the Philadelphia Boys Choir.

Let’s start with tubapalooza. The event, known officially as TubaChristmas, will bring together 100 tuba, euphonium, and sousaphone players, for a set of holiday classics Friday and Saturday.

It basically works like this: The horn players sign up here and the first 100 get in. After about two hours of practice, they set up in the Kimmel Center’s Commonwealth Plaza, and that’s when the blowing begins. The free performance lasts about an hour. (Friday’s show is at 5:30, and Saturday’s is at 1 p.m.)

Also on the schedule this weekend at the Kimmel’s Perelman Theater: Philadanco, the Philadelphia dance company, will put on its “Xmas Philes” show, which mixes classics like “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night” with contemporary, wacky Christmas songs like “Zat You, Santa Claus?”

There are four shows this weekend: Friday at 7:30; Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets cost $34-$46.

There’s also the annual “Holiday POPS!” show by Peter Nero and the Philly Pops running through Dec. 22 ($27-$104) and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s “Glorious Sound of Christmas” Dec. 16-18 ($17-$105) – both at the Kimmel’s Verizon Hall.

The show, based on this summer’s smash-hit film, will go beyond computer animated 3-D to bring Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head and tons of those little green three-eyed squeeze toy aliens to life on ice.

The show has its own plot: Young Andy prepares for college and decides the fate of his favorite childhood friends, er, toys. They reminisce over their time together and soon the toys embark on yet another adventure, this time finding themselves trapped at a daycare center filled with boisterous toddlers. Tickets are $15-$85.

For an older crowd, say 21 to 35, there are a couple of rock ’n’ roll-themed holiday shows you can hit up with your buds.

The Philadelphia show is the final concert of a quick eight-date holiday tour pairing two rock acts. Malin, the New York rocker who snagged A-List guests like Bruce Springsteen, Jakob Dylan and Ryan Adams for his 2007 album “Glitter in the Gutter,” will share the night with Philadelphia-based Marah, whose 2000 release “Kids in Philly” remains its greatest achievement.

Expect original and traditional Christmas songs from both acts during their sets before they join to close out the show, which is doubling as a Toys For Tots toy drive. Concertgoers are asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy for underprivileged children. Tickets are $19.

And now for something completely different: The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., is holding a holiday karaoke gong show hosted by a man dressed as Skeletor, the villain of the animated series “Masters of the Universe”.

What’s the holiday connection to the ’80s cartoon? Absolutely none. The “Holiday Gong Show and Chinatown Beat-Down,” based on the wacky “Gong Show” game show hosted by Chuck Barris in the ’70s, is actually a regular event at The Troc. But since it’s December, this time it will have a dash of the season.

With an assist from a new digital karaoke system, singers step up and belt out a tune, hoping to finish before Skeletor (Philadelphia actor Carmen Martella) takes out the gong and puts the crowd out of its misery.

It’s free and goes down at 10:30 p.m. Dec. 17, and you have to be 21 or over.

“We actually dress up Skeletor as Skeleclaus with a Santa hat and beard,” says Ned Gaudette, The Trocadero’s marketing manager and Skeletor’s sidekick for the night. “So something that’s already ridiculous gets even more ridiculous.”

About Ryan Cormier

News Journal features reporter Ryan Cormier throws everything pop culture into a blender and hits frappe. Check out his take on music, movies, celebrities and everything in between. It's what you need to know and a lot more stuff you really don't. Join him on Twitter and Facebook.

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